cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/19935121
FCC ends affordable internet program due to lack of funds | CNN Business
Why did that require funds in the first place? Was the government actually paying to subsidize ISPs instead of just requiring them to take less profit?
Great now we just need to revive trust busing laws monopolies are anti American
Indeed they were. It was nice for a second there, you know, to be able to have Internet access. Sigh back to lifeline and 4gb of data per month I go 😭😂
Indeed they were.
Well then there’s the problem!
What they should’ve done is said “if you want to be allowed to serve the profitable customers, then you have to serve the low-income ones at a loss, too. Deal with it or fold.”
it just may not end up being constitutional that way. it would be easier to just do vouchers for people who need it and implement more taxes causing them to raise prices. lots of laws get struck down and these big ISPs have many attorneys
This is awful. Someone should create a letter-writing campaign to implement the idea I mentioned above. No one should have only 4 GB of data ever, especially when there are hardly any marginal costs from having additional users use the service.
The government can’t really force a company to accept certain customers for free without micromanaging their business. It could also be illegal .
They should just create a tax on the wealthier internet users to be able to afford to do this. The only way to do this would be to have a lowest-class free tier, a middle class discount tier, and then anyone else pays a lot tier. It would be too hard to make the wealthy verify income just for internet access. Also, middle class people who didn’t need the discount wouldn’t apply for it or verify income. This would have the same effect and would likely not be illegal.
The government can’t really force a company to accept certain customers for free
Sure it can, when the company in question is a regulated monopoly (as broadband ISPs very much are).
If the government tells a company “you’re going to take these customers, like it or not” it may result in expensive and time consuming legal challenges that the government may lose. There are checks and balances in the US at least.
I’m not sure you appreciate how old and well-established the government’s right to regulate de-jure monopoly utility companies actually is.
You’re probably right about this if you are certain I am wrong. I haven’t researched any laws on this, so perhaps there wouldn’t be long expensive annoying legal challenges that could be bypassed by crafting the law differently and it would be easier to be more direct.